‘Andhra Pradesh govt disbursed over Rs 19K cr towards Amma Vodi scheme’

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy claimed that his government has disbursed Rs 19,617 crore in three years for mothers sending their children to school.

The YSRCP government launched a financial incentive scheme named Amma Vodi (mother’s lap) in January 2020, offering Rs 15,000 per year to mothers from BPL families for sending their kids to school. Amma Vodi is applicable till class XII.

While the rider is 75% attendance; from the Rs 15,000, Rs 1,000 each is taken as a contribution toward the Toilets and School Maintenance Fund.

“No other state in the country has such a programme. 84 lakh children and their 44.5 lakh mothers are the beneficiaries of the scheme for which my government has spent Rs 19,617.60 crore in these three years,” Reddy said on Tuesday while participating in a discussion in the state assembly on the transformations made in the health and education sectors.

The CM said that the GER in primary schools, which was very poor earlier, could be increased drastically through schemes like Amma-Vodi, Gorumudda, Vidya Deevena, and Vasathi Devena.

While government schools had 37.20 lakh students in 2018-19, it increased to 44.29 lakh in 2021-22, Reddy said.

“Under Gorumudda, providing nutritious food at school with a different menu every day, our government has been spending Rs 1,800 crore. It was just Rs 450 crore annually by the previous TDP government, which also did not clear the dues of aayas and provisions.”

Vidya kanuka kits with a school bag, bilingual textbooks, workbooks, notebooks, three pairs of uniforms, shoes, two pairs of socks, dictionary are being given to students on the school reopening day, costing about Rs 886 cores.

The CM added that for the 8th class students and teachers, 5.18 lakh tabs would be given in November last week. The tabs would have preloaded Byjus content to serve as a home tutorial, he said. Byju’s content, which would otherwise cost about Rs 24,000 is being given free of cost.

Reddy said that besides government schools, pre-primary foundation schools and Anganwadi hostels are also being developed under the Nadu Nedu scheme.

In the first phase, 15,715 schools were revamped with a cost of Rs 3,700 crore and digitization of classrooms will be in place from the next academic year.